Thursday, August 30, 2012

Road trips

It's been a good period for me as far as travel is concerned. I visited Goa last month. It was my third trip to Goa, so the destination was not something I was looking forward to visit, but it was a road trip, and I love road trips especially during monsoons when the roads look more beautiful with various shades of green all around them.

I was with two more friends in our car, a lady driving. So all those who think that ladies cannot drive should meet my friend. It was one of the best roads trips for me for various reasons - I have rarely travelled on ghats during monsoon. Lonavala trips no longer fall in the road trip category as thanks to the Express way, you don't get to enjoy the ghat section. But the roads are beautiful nevertheless. And I did visit Lonavala using the ghat route as it was a bike ride. But more on that, later in the post.

Coming back to the Goa trip, while going to Goa, we took the old goa route. It was a single lane road at most of the places. I have travelled on that road a lot of times for business trips to various parts of Raigad. But this time, I got to travel through the ghats after a long time. Thanks to Monsoons, we not only came across lush greens all over, but even a few waterfalls. Here are some images:

Road to Goa - one of the best patches that we drove on.

Waterfalls en-route Goa.

Goa stay was very relaxing too. I was resting most of the times. The resort was beautiful. It had a private beach and other amenities that you would prefer when you go for a vacation to rest. While coming back, we took the Kolhapur route. It had only one ghat - Amboli ghat. Rest of the route was express way. But those twenty minutes on Amboli ghat left me with unforgettable memories of the ghat.

This was the road that we drove on for twenty odd minutes. There were some 25 odd waterfalls on this ghat.

Another trip was to Lonavala by bike. Again, it's a different fun to travel on ghats on a bike and in a car. You cannot compare both the experiences. I don't click much when I travel as I prefer to enjoy the journey more than capturing the memories. I like the memories more in my head. But I do have a few pictures of that trip, one of them is going to be my favourite for quite some time after the one I posted above.

You can see me too in the mirror. This was the road for sixty to eighty kilometers one way. While returning, it was pouring. Again it's a different fun to get drenched in rains when you travel by car and by bike.

Yesterday I went to Kolad for river rafting. That was one great experience too. One of the best outdoor activities I have done. But more on that, some other time.

I have gone on numerous road trips. Being the navigator; I get to look at the scenes around and also nag for stopping the vehicle to take a pic or two :) See these pics earlier; once again, no amount of camera capture can do justice to what your eyes took in!

Ghat road is brilliant. I did a trip to pune last month,that was first for me on my new bike. I had double experience. While going there were clear skies and sunny weather. While coming back it was dew,fog and heavy rain. But it's always great to ride challenging conditions. Spots are scenic but I am not a good photographer and I like to enjoy road more as I was travelling alone. Longer trips in future may be

Ghat road is brilliant. I did a trip to pune last month,that was first for me on my new bike. I had double experience. While going there were clear skies and sunny weather. While coming back it was dew,fog and heavy rain. But it's always great to ride challenging conditions. Spots are scenic but I am not a good photographer and I like to enjoy road more as I was travelling alone. Longer trips in future may be

Travelling is always rejuvenating. Having spent 4 years of my engineering at Manipal (about 4 hr train journey from Madgaon), we used to be frequent visitors there. Goa is a place you can never have enough of. Keep travelling and keep updating :)